"Honey, I think there's a line.  Do you see a line?"  We stared at the pregnancy test and decided there was indeed a line and we were pregnant for the sixth time.  The five pregnancies before had sadly ended in miscarriages.  It was a mixture of excitement and anxiety for both of us.

Five months into the pregnancy we found out that the baby was a boy and he had a chromosome disorder called trisomy 18.  To learn more about trisomy 18 click here but in a nutshell the baby has three copies of the number 18 chromosome and there should only be two.  Babies who make it to be born with the disorder are severely mentally retarded, have many problems with other organs (usually the heart) and most die before they are a year old.  The doctors offered to terminate the pregnancy but that was not an option for us.  We were in love with the little guy and he was alive and well at the time.  We decided to name him Evan Paul Leland Rausch.  Evan means warrior and his middle names are his grandfathers' first names.

Evan was born via C-section on December 6, 2004 at 1:06pm.  He weighed in at a hefty 4 pounds and 1 ounce and was 17 inches long.  He was tiny but perfect in our eyes.  It was pretty rough going at first since he was a month premature.  His lungs weren't quite ready and he had some breathing problems.  On December 7th he was transported to Children's Medical Center where we spent the next 45 days. Our families even came to the hospital for Christmas.  We lived at the Ronald McDonald House across from the hospital the whole time.  Thank God for that!  We could stay close to Evan and get some much needed sleep and a meal once in a while.

We all came home on January 21, 2005.  Evan has some health issues but he's on medicines to control most of them.  Being home with him is challenging without the NICU staff there 24/7 but we're enjoying it!  We didn't know if we would be able to bring him home at all and thank God every day that we could.

Please take a few minutes to look at Evan's pictures.  He's our little miracle baby and we're awfully proud of him!

Evan Paul Leland Rausch